Child porn suspect captured

Edward Holmes

A man wanted by the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office for possessing and distributing child pornography was arrested early Friday morning in Montgomery County, Va.

According to investigators, Edward Holmes, 52, of Savannah was committing the crime while living at the Quail Run Lodge, an extended stay hotel off Dean Forest Road in Chatham County.

The ECSO’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force discovered that someone had been using the hotel’s IP address for several weeks to download and share images of child pornography, and investigators determined that the computer being used was in Holmes’ room.

Investigators searched the room Wednesday and found “several explicit images and videos of child pornography with children under 10 years of age” on Holmes’ laptop computer, said ECSO spokesman Detective David Ehsanipoor. “We have enough evidence to charge him with sexual exploitation of children.”

Holmes did not return to the hotel and investigators believed he was on the run. He is from Virginia and drives a car with Virginia license plates.

"Effingham County Sheriff's deputies began tracking Holmes and received information around 1 a.m. (Friday) he was in a Walmart parking lot in Montgomery County, Va.," Ehsanipoor said.

ECSO deputies contacted Montgomery County deputies, who located Holmes and took him into custody.

Holmes is expected to have an extradition hearing within the next few days and will be transported back to Effingham County to face his charge of sexual exploitation of a child. The case remains under investigation and Holmes may face more charges, Ehsanipoor said.

Holmes had been living in the Savannah area for about three months while working as a manager of a funeral home, according to Ehsanipoor.